I Agree with Diesel!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LastDon]

DION NEEDS TO START!!!!! AND DION WILL START!!!!

If Ira start and he guards the best perimeter player what are we going to do if that player is a 3?? Are we going to put Dog on a 2?

Some of you guys post on what you hear instead of analizing the game for yourselfs. Dion look bad last season on D because he played mostly SF. Most players had a height advantage over him. Then for a portion of the season JT was playing 2 and that itself creates mismatches all over the place.

When Dion played the 2 the previous season everyone was raving that he was the best perimeter defender we had.

Also you have to take into account that Dion got in Lon's Dog house before JT moved back to the point. Therefore Ira was allowed to play the 3 a position that he is better suited for than Dion and we just Decided to play DJ at the 2 because he was doing an excellent in practice and we wanted to see if his play could transfer into game time situations.

Dion will defend better at his natural postion of the 2 and that's a fact.

Even if Ira gets the nod in the beginning of practice he is going to look like a terrible defender and loose the spot because there is no one the team that can guard Dion one on one.

I bet that Dion Guards Ira better than Ira guards Dion. Anyway we have more invested in Dion than Ira and that itself will be an important factor in who starts and who doesn't.

I garantee that at the end of training camp Dion will be the starter and it will be up to him if he keeps the spot or not.

[LastDon]

Ira is the guy that best suited for the bench role because he can guard both the 2 and the 3. Therefore he will always be able to guard the best perimeter player or even the perimeter player that's hot on a certain night.

I think that we can utilize him better in a role where his focus is on strictly defense. If he starts he will always be the guy that the double team comes from when teams double Reef and his J just isn't good enough to flourish at this role for long periods of time.

Like Diesel said "If Dog is having problems Defensively would you rather sub a fresh Ira or an Ira that is tired from loggin minutes at the 2."

I think that our defense will improve from last season from just starting a conventional lineup. I think that this is the main reason why the D improve not the addition of Ira even though he contributed to it. Really we just had a huge hole at "supposedly" pg and small forward and we tried to plug the whole at forward with SGs in Dion and DJ.

[LastDon]

The reason I say this is because Big Dogg is going to play 40 plus minutes even if he is playing poor D.

With this being said should we start an offensive liability at the 2(Ira) or start the guy with the more balanced offense(Dion) and just sub for him when he is having problems on the Defensive end.(Personally I don't think he will have a problem at his natural position)

I think last season we just played terrible D as a team until we went with a conventional lineup. JT was a terrible defender as a 2 as well as Dion being a terrible defender as a 3 and everyone knows that Nazr is just horrible on that end of the court.

[Iman]

However, I cant really agree with much else (well of course I agree that Nazr doesnt even try to defend, he just rebounds). I think Dion has developed extraordinary 1on1 type basketball skills but he still needs work on his team game. He seems to me to need to be a primary focus of the offense to be effective. That's why I think he'll come off the bench. I think the opposite of what you think will happen when he starts in practice. I think Ira can do a good job of shutting him down 1on1 but moreso Dion will just seem to lose his game and not fit with our starting unitl. I hope that as the season and future seasons pass that wont be a problem but it sure seemed that way the last few years to me and he'd be even less of a focus this year. Whereas I think Ira and Theo fit perfectly with our 3 scorers.

I dont think it's a matter of Dion being a summer league player I think he's just more of a gotta have the ball kinda player. I sorta remember that happening to Dominique a little at times. Hopefully he'll work with Dion and get the problem straightened out. Plus I like thinking about Dion demanding the ball from our second team, I think that fits much better with Hendu, CC, Dickau, and Nazr's style.

[LastDon]

I just can't picture at time when 2 of the big 3 want be out there on the floor. JT,Reef,Dog, all will log major minutes.

So what's the use of supposedly saving Dion for the second unit

[jaywalker72]

It fact, the game that sentenced him to the bench permanantly was the Clippers game, when Q Rich and Piatkowski lit him up and forced Lon to get him out of the game.

I am not saying who has the most talent, because that won't matter to Lon. He wants balance and chemistry, and I believe he will lean toward keeping Dion on the bench unless he improves his defense in Kruger's eyes.

[Guest]

Dion is a classic example of what is wrong

with the NBA as well speak.His team skill

level is very low.He is nothing but a scorer

and if we start him we have nothing for

scoring from the bench.

Dickau

Email

Newble

Crawford

Henderson

Nazr

That is a top 3 worst bench.None of those

guys are scorers.

[LastDon]

That's only one game. You work for the organization so you especially know that Dion played a majority of the season last year at the 3.

Did he or did he not play good D the previous year at the 2.

Jay if he did play a majority of his minutes at the 3 do you feel like he was playing out of position or do you agree with this bone head decison of Lon's.

[LastDon]

If Ira Starts and guards the best perimeter player what if that player happens to be a SF are we going to put Dog on a 2?

Would Ira benifit us better as a player that comes in for small spurts to be a defensive spark plug or by Logging Major minutes at the 2 and have him be a offensive liability?

Did Dion Play a majority of his minutes this season as a 3 and the previous season as a 2?

One of Ira's biggest assest is his versatility and I feel like it could be utilized more if we use him as a situational player.

[jaywalker72]

He had trouble defending everyone last year, although he was strong the year before...

I defended Dion all throughout the year, but couldn't keep it up after the first of the year when it was clear he was struggling.

If he can show it (defense) in camp, he has the advantage of having more offense. I hope he does well.

[LastDon]

Has Dion ever cried about not getting shots. Dion is an excellent team player. He even told Lon last season that he would come off the bench if it would help the team more.

It seems to me that your saying every guy in the league who can create his own shot has low team Skills.

I guess Ira is an excellent team player because he has limited offensive skills.

If you watched any of the games you would know that Dion got alot of his points on the break. Rarely last season did we just call plays for Dion. In alot of instances I thought we should have.

[Guest]

Dion sucks.He has done nothing to deserve

starting.He has been nothing but a wasted

pick and is injured all the time.What has he

gave this team to even deserve a spot to be

honest with you.What has he gave the team

besides another taken spot on the bench while

being in a suit.Dion is a extremely limited

player,he has gave us nothing and he

can't play any defense.

Ira helped us to a winning record while DIon

was sitting his butt on the bench in a suit

like he always does.He doesn't deserve a

starting spot.He's been here 3 years and

gave us nothing and he is nothing but a

cheap scorer off the bench anyways. He

has to actually earn something but has

yet to produce for the team and seeing

he hasn't played a full season yet I

doubt he ever will.He has to actually

prove himself and a cheap summer

league isn't proof.

[Diesel]

I agree with a lot of what LastDon has said. I'm not totally ruling out Ira as a starting 2. I am saying that we would have to find a guy who can backup the 3/4 positions and play decent defense doing it before I would consider putting Ira as a Starting 2.

Secondly, Ira is not a ball handler or a shooter. This is why I said if you want to be honest, Email is a better choice at 2 than Ira... However, I feel that Email is CBA material. It would be easier for us to give Dion the chance to finally play SG and see where his defense is that to Start Ira or Email because of their defense.

As far as this idea that Dion is a better one on one player. Sure. He's in the mold of JR Rider. However, on offense, we should have 3 zones of offense. a two man game with JT and SAR, Big Dog in the midrange, and Dion playing baseline and one on one. If you want a current gaurd to compare him with say Vince Carter. He's not on Vince's level because Vinny C is Vinny C, but they both play that power game and as a 2nd yr player, when Vince couldn't shoot well from 3, Vince power game was translated into points from putbacks and taking his man baseline. I believe Dion can do the same.

[Diesel]

You talk about no scoring from the 2 unit? Huh? The people on the bench are subs. That means that they enter the game as a substitute for our players. If Lon is smart, then he would rotate Big Dog, SAR, and JT out at different times. THEREFORE, it doesn't matter if you have nonscorers coming off the bench. There will always be at least 2 scorers in the game. Also, SAR, JT, and Big Dog all averaged over 33 out of 48 minutes last yr. That leaves at most 15 minutes of time of the bench. What coach cannot keep at least 2 scorers on the floor with 45 minutes to play with??

[Blunt91]

Okay Dion isn't a great defender and not as good as Ira Defensively but he isn't as terrible as you all make him out to be. Jay you stated "He had trouble defending everyone last year" well I recall Dion holding Vince Carter under 20points when the Hawks played them, he even stole the ball on a particular play.No that doesn't make him a great defender but it does say he can defend when he want's to do so. I am not agruing who the better defender is I am just stating Dion is a better shooter than Ira, Big Dog only shot 32% in 3's last year that means the only 3point threat in the starting lineup is JT. Glove started the season at44% last year although his numbers went down by the time he went out for the season. BTW couldn't the injury to Dion's foot be some of the blame for his poor defense in the 2nd half of the season, and why does everyone act like Chris Crawford can't play any ball? Crawford can backup Glenn Robinson. Crawford is a pretty decent defender if you don't believe me ask Michael Jordan.

[Traceman]

Dion didn't hold VC to anything last year, it was Emmanual DAVIS who did such a great job on VC. Dion had a good offensive game against Toronto the first time we played them but VC was scoring on him at will and Lon switched Davis on to VC. After the switch, VC couldn't do anything. Davis guarded VC in our next game versus Toronto too and held him to 16 points.

Dion is clearly a better offensive player than Ira but the first unit needs another top level defender. DJ was the best option because although he doesn't defend as well as Ira (YET), he is a better offensive player and while he's not as good of an offensive player as Glove (again YET), he's a much better defender. With DJ out, whoever wins the job is probably going to be the guy who fits in best with the other 4 starters. It could be either guy but Glove is probably at a slight disadvantage because Ira brings the known on D and on paper, that is the first unit's weakness. If Dion can learn to play D at the level that his athletic ability, size and strength says he should be able to play it, then he will be the logical starter because of his vastly superior offensive skills.

It's really not that big of a deal who starts because if the season started today, both would likely play significant minutes anyway. In addition, don't completely rule out a person who is not currently on the roster being brought in to fill the starting SG role. I wouldn't be completely shocked to see a Nazr for Mike Miller/filler (DeClerq?) deal go down before the season starts, particularly now that reports have Hill looking like he's going to be 100% for the season opener. Even if Kemp does start at PF, Nazr would be a HUGE upgrade for Orlando at Center. In fact, Nazr, Kemp, Hill, T Mac, Armstrong would be one of the best starting lineups in the EC. Of course Theo, SAR, Big Dog, Miller, JT wouldn't be bad either!

[Guest]

Like I said,Dion has gave us very little

and should actually earn the starting

role.

Diesel every good team has a good

6th man:

Bobby Jackson/Big Nasty/Horry/Van Exel/

Malik Rose/Tim Thomas and so on.With

Dion starting who is our 6th man?Nazr?

Please

Dion has done nothing to deserve a starting

spot so therefore he simply doesn't deserve

it.

If Dermarr hadn't got hurt there was at times

it seems like Dion might just be expendable.

[Gray Mule]

Improvement of both players is important to the outcome

of the season. Both these players have to improve on

their weakest points. If we could {Which is impossible}

let one of them play defense and the other offense, wow,

what a player we would have!!

I believe both will work on this before the season and

probably already have this off season. Neubie said he

wanted to work on his shooting skills at the end of last

season. I'll bet that he has. D.G. is a slasher, driver

on offense and, if he works on his defense, will be a

much better player.

Nazr has worked on his upper body strength since the end

of the season and will be harder to push around inside.

The experience he gained last season will be valueable

this coming season.

More than anything else, staying healthy is the major

key. With DerMarr already lost for the season, we

start one down already. It is terrible that it happened

but if it had to happen, better it happened when it did

and not in the season. At least Hawks have time to

prepare for the season without him. I hate to think

how much worse off the Hawks would be if this had

happened 20 games into the season.

Kruger can expect to start this season with a set lineup

and there won't be the need to search for players as he

had to do at the beginning of last season. This will

help him a lot. Another year's experience as an N.B.A.

coach will be an asset also. This season, we start with

a team, rather than having to build one as we did last

year. Much Better.

Gray Mule

[hds428]

Too bad we cant smush Dion and Ira into one player LOL. Offensive gunner, defensive deadbolt: Iron Newglove!!! Paging doctor Frankenstein!!